Life, Love, and Memories
by CopperBoom4
Summary: An A/U Story. Mostly about Lorelai with both Chris and Luke thrown in. What would become of Lorelai's life if Rory was never born?


**A/N: This is actually my second attempt at a Gilmore Girls story. I posted one on the site a few weeks ago and ended up taking it down for multiple reasons, but I decided to give GG fanfiction another chance. This is an A/U songfic based on the song "Good in Goodbye " by Carrie Underwood (the lyrics are not in the story so if you want, go over to youtube and listen to the song before reading if you haven't heard it before). I should also point out that I am in no way a fan of Christopher but this idea popped into my head and I decided to write it down. Also, I've used this song for a House M.D. fanfic before but I'm using it again for Gilmore Girls, that's life. Disclaimer: By this point, people should know I'm just here for fun and not to make money or claim characters that I didn't create. **

Lorelai was going to be late for work. The stupid banquet her parent's held at their home last night ran later than expected and Emily had convinced Lorelai to spend the night rather than trying to drive home half drunk (or buzzed as Lorelai liked to call it). After some protest Lorelai just decided to spend the night; the hangover had already been starting to kick in anyway. Now she had precisely twenty minutes to get to work and a thirty-minute commute, plus she needed coffee to squelch the hangover and the exhaustion. Seeing as she was already going to be late for work, Lorelai stopped in Downtown Hartford on her way back to Stars Hollow to get a cup of coffee. On a normal day, Lorelai would have waited until she was back in Stars Hollow and gotten a cup of her favorite coffee at her fiancé's diner, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Lorelai parked on the street in front of a Starbucks, went inside and got some seasonal pumpkin flavored coffee. After one sip, Lorelai found it to be a little too sweet and a whole lot of weird but coffee was coffee. Lorelai was just getting ready to step off the curb and get back into her Jeep when she heard her phone ringing in her purse. Lorelai quickly dug around and punched the green button to answer her phone.

"Hello?" Lorelai said into the phone. "Hi, Lorelai, are you coming in today? Michel is refusing to do his job as usual and Jackson says the Zucchini crop isn't ready for me to make the soup tonight and Cletus got out again and…" Lorelai let out a frustrated sigh as her business partner/chef Sookie St. James listed everything that was wrong at their Inn, the Dragonfly, all before 9 AM. "Sookie, I'm in Hartford. I stayed at my parent's place last night. I'm on my way back as we speak but I'm going to be a little later than usual. Tell Michel if he's not standing behind that desk when I get back, he'll be standing in the unemployment line by this time tomorrow. If the Zucchini isn't ready, make a different kind of soup and send Bob out to look for Cletus. I should be back by nine thirty, ten at the latest. Talk to you soon." Lorelai didn't even wait for Sookie to say anything before hanging up. This was going to be one of those days.

Lorelai was just about to step off the curb again when she heard something from the restaurant next door to the Starbucks, something she hadn't heard in a very long time, 12 years to be exact. It was a laugh. Of course Lorelai had heard laughter in 12 years, but not this laughter, Christopher's laughter. Lorelai was almost afraid to move for some unexplainable reason, but she turned her heard towards the sound anyway and that's when she saw Christopher leaving that restaurant and he was not alone. Chris had a little girl, maybe two years old up on his shoulders. She was a little blonde thing with bright blue eyes and she was smiling and clapping her hands together and Chris was laughing about something. Lorelai was torn between bolting for her car and going over and saying hello. The decision was made for her when she heard someone call out "Lor?" and she knew he had seen her.

Lorelai felt a sinking feeling in her gut when Chris and the little girl started walking closer to her. She was rooted in her spot. Chris was now close enough to talk without shouting to her. "Lor, it's been what, 12 years? How have you been?" How had she been? How had she been? The last 12 years flashed before Lorelai's eyes. She had been pregnant at fifteen years old, she had to tell her parents that their disappointment of a daughter had screwed up in just about the biggest way possible. Her parents were upset with her and hated her possibly more than they did before but that was nothing compared to the hatred Chris' parents felt towards her for 'ruining their son's life'. Talk of marriage and working at her father's law firm were discussed but the plans were in vain anyway. Just as her eighth month of pregnancy was rolling around, Lorelai got sick. It started out as just a cold but quickly became more serious. Lorelai had to be hospitalized and the examination given to her upon admittance showed she had something called Fifths disease. It was not life threatening to Lorelai and her symptoms would subside after some rest and fluids, but the examination done on the baby showed different results. The doctors called it a miscarriage but because Lorelai was in her third trimester, the baby would have to be birthed instead of removed surgically.

Lorelai had to stay in the hospital until her Fifths disease was gone, then labor was induced and Lorelai had to give birth to a stillborn baby. Lorelai was allowed to hold her daughter before the doctors took her away. Christopher and his parents didn't visit Lorelai once while she was in the hospital. When Lorelai came home from the hospital life was just expected to go on as normal, there was no baby so there was no longer a hindrance standing in her way or Christopher's. Richard and Emily were sympathetic to Lorelai's situation for the most part but they were also relieved the mistake had been erased and Lorelai could still pursue her bright future. Chris came and visited once, right after Lorelai's sixteenth birthday. He apologized and told her he should have been there for her but he just didn't know how to handle it. Lorelai kicked him out of the house with some choice words and a few middle fingers, and that had been the last time she saw Christopher Hayden.

Christopher's immaturity and her parent's desire to move on from the fact that Lorelai had to give birth to a stillborn baby and get on with life as usual made Lorelai feel depressed and trapped, she had considered doing some self destructive and permanent things to herself, but in the end Lorelai decided to run away from home. One night while her parents were at some function, Lorelai packed a bag and left her house. She hitchhiked her way to the nearest bus stop and hopped on. She rode the bus as far as the measly fee would take her and ended up thirty minutes away in a small town called Stars Hollow. She found an Inn where she planned to stay the night and then she would move on, maybe to New York or somewhere else. The Inn was beautiful, the Owner, Mia, was so kind, and they were looking to hire a few new maids. Lorelai thought staying at this Inn and working as a maid for a few weeks wouldn't be a bad idea; money was tight for her right now seeing as how she had just run away from home. Mia talked to one of the families in town, the St. James family, and they agreed to have Lorelai stay with them while she was working at the Inn. Sookie St. James and Lorelai became fast friends. Lorelai never ended up leaving Stars Hollow. She got her GED at 16, saved up her money and bought a car and took business classes at the Hartford Community College. She graduated with a four year business degree at twenty and quickly rose through the ranks at the Inn to become the head maid, then the event planner, then the assistant manager.

At 18, when Sookie left for culinary school, Lorelai moved out of the St. James house and converted the potting shed at the Inn into a small apartment. She lived there until she was promoted to assistant manager at age 24. With the assistant manager's salary, Lorelai was able to afford a down payment on her very own home. Sookie was back and was working as a Chef at the Inn and everything in Lorelai's life was falling into place. She had even met a guy that she really liked only she didn't make a move because he was still bitter about his last girlfriend leaving him to travel the world. After two years of playing around, Luke finally had the courage to ask Lorelai out, and they've been together ever since. Lorelai had even made up with her parents (for the most part) and goes to their house for Friday night dinners three times a month as well as attending some of their gatherings and functions. Things on Lorelai's work front had even taken a surpising and wonderful turn when Mia announced she was closing the Independence Inn to move to Florida and instead of severance pay, Mia was giving Lorelai and Sookie money to purchase the old Dragonfly Inn and start their own business. "Don't think I haven't heard you girls talking about opening your own Inn someday!" Mia told them when she handed over the check. Everything in Lorelai's life was perfect and she had forgotten most of the life she left behind, but it all came flooding back with a few simple words. "Lor, did you hear me? How have you been?"

Lorelai took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Oh pretty good Chris. I see you've been, um, busy. Who is this?" Lorelai gestured to the girl up on Chris' shoulders. "Oh this," Chris said pulling the little girl down into his arms "is GiGi, well Georgia but GiGi for short. This is my daughter. GiGi can you say hi to Lorelai?" The little girl cocked her head to the side and looked at Lorelai with her captivating blue eyes. "Hi Lor Lie" the little girl said quietly. Lorelai smiled at the girl before talking to Chris again. "So where is her mom?" Chris smiled. "Oh Sherry is in Paris on business, we've been married for almost four years now and GiGi is almost three but Sherry just can't give up her work, she loves it. We met and Princeton and everything just sort of fell into place. I'm working at my dad's company now, He's thinking of making me partner. What are you doing now?" Lorelai kept the fake smile plastered on her face. "I run an Inn in a small town about a half hour from here. I'm engaged; we're getting married next June. Everything is going really well." Chris looked like he was going to say something but then GiGi started to fuss. "I should probably get her home, she gets fussy when we're out too long. It was really great to see you Lor." Lorelai nodded at him. "Yeah, it was really great to see you too Chris." Chris and GiGi headed off in the other direction and Lorelai got into her car. She grabbed her phone and called the Inn. "Drangonfly Inn, Michel speaking." Lorelai held her tongue to keep from scolding Michel about his tone. "Michel it's Lorelai, tell Sookie I'm going to be later than I thought getting in this morning." She heard Michel scoff over the line. "Heaven forbid the boss comes in and does some work." Lorelai's eyes turned to slits. "Just tell Sookie." She growled before ending the call and throwing her phone in the passenger seat.

Lorelai broke many traffic laws and exceeded many speed limits and made it back to Stars Hollow in twenty minutes. Instead of going home to change or going to the Inn to work, Lorelai pulled the Jeep in front of Luke's Diner where the breakfast rush was over and the crowd sparse. She walked in looking for Luke, and found his trying to fix the toaster yet again. "Shouldn't you just get a new one, this piece of junk has been unreliable for years." Lorelai told him as she plopped down on a stool. Luke looked up and took in her outfit. "Isn't that what you were wearing yesterday? I know you stayed at your parent's last night but does that mean you haven't even been home yet. Aren't you late for work." Lorelai rolled her eyes at him. "You're a regular Sherlock Holmes. No I haven't been home yet. I woke up late and I was a little hungover from all the booze I drank to make that party less boring and I stopped for coffee and I ran into Christopher. Then I came here." Luke stopped fiddling with the toaster and looked up at her. "Christopher? You mean that guy…" Lorelai cut Luke off. "Yep, the one that got me pregnant." Luke could see the tears threatening to spill from Lorelai's eyes. He dropped his tools on the counter. "Ceaser, I'm taking five." Luke yelled into the kitchen before leading Lorelai upstairs. Luke no longer lived in this apartment, he'd moved in with Lorelai, but they decided to keep the old office as an apartment in case Luke's sister and nephew came to town or if something happened at the house and they needed a place to stay.

Luke led Lorelai over to the couch and they sat down. "Did he do or say something to make you upset? Did he bring up the baby?" Lorelai shook her head no and let some of the tears fall. "No he didn't. He's just married with a kid and working at his dad's company where they're going to make him partner. He was just able to move on into this other life. He never has to relive birthing and holding a stillborn baby. He's living the life he parents always hoped he would live. He can just chalk up our daughter to a stupid drunken sixteen year old mistake that was taken care of." Luke wrapped his arms around Lorelai and held her tight while she struggled not to cry. He felt so bad that there was nothing you could do to make her feel better about this. "Lorelai, do you wish things would have worked out between you and him all those years ago?" Lorelai blinked back tears and looked up at Luke. "Of course not. I love you and you're ten times the man he'll ever be. I'm so happy with you, more than you could imagine." Luke nodded at her. "Do you regret the time you spent with him years ago, do you regret the things that happened?" Lorelai got a pensive look on her face. "No I don't. If I never had gotten pregnant, if he would have come to be with me in the hospital, if he had been more mature, I never would have run away. I wouldn't be with you, I wouldn't know Sookie, I wouldn't run my very own Inn. " Luke started rubbing Lorelai's back in slow circles. "So it sounds like you both ended up where you were meant to end up right?" Lorelai felt a small smile moving onto her face. "You're right. " Luke smiled too and hugged her back to his chest. "So, he may have the life his parents always wanted for him, but you have a life you made for yourself. You run a successful business, you own your own house, you got your college degree at twenty years old, and you're getting married in June. We're going to have kids and we'll tell them about their older sister, and what a strong independent woman their mom is. They'll make their grandparent's fall in love with them and they may even make your parent's forget how much they hate me. Most importantly though, you're marrying a diner owner and from now until I die, you will never be more than ten feet from pie." Lorelai started outright laughing and turned around to kiss Luke. "I guess there is some truth in the saying 'there's good in goodbye, huh?" Luke just smiled at Lorelai and pushed her hair back to kiss her forehead. Lorelai reached over to her bag on the coffee table and grabbed her phone before settling back into Luke's chest. She dialed a number and started to speak. "Hey Michel, it's Lorelai. Tell Sookie I won't be in today."

**A/N: That's a wrap everyone. I'm pretty pleased with this story. Someday I might even do more fics in this universe. Feedback is always welcome and very much encouraged. Thanks for reading!**


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